Greenfield Fire District Commissioner
About the Greenfield Fire District (GFD)
The Greenfield Fire District was formed in 1947. The district was formed when the responsibility of protecting both Greenfield and Wilton grew too great for the Saratoga Springs Fire Department. It was divided into the following four companies: Greenfield Center (Company #1), Porter Corners (Company #2), Middle Grove (Company #3), Maple Avenue (Company #4).
Background
While it is hard to say who founded the Greenfield Fire District, there was a key incident that sparked interest throughout the community for the creation of a new fire district as well as some some key players in its inception.
The main catalyst for the establishment of the Greenfield Fire District was the burning of Cliff Stevens' home and garage located on Maple Avenue near what is now the Wilton Medical Building in 1946. Since this house is technically outside the Saratoga Springs Fire Department's district, they could not respond due to insurance reasons and Cliff Stevens' home was left unattended and was lost.
Two individuals who played a large role in the development of the district were Windsor G. Cote and Ernest Rucker. Both later became the first two chiefs of the Greenfield Fire District.
The Greenfield Fire District
The Greenfield Fire District encompasses all of the Town of Greenfield and part of the Town of Wilton. The section of the Town of Wilton is defined by Maple Avenue, Northern Pines, Carr Road, Jones Road, Ingersol Road, Weibel Avenue, and Route 50 north back to Route 9 (Maple Avenue). The Maple Avenue Fire Department is the company that covers that area of the Greenfield Fire District. The rest of the Town of Wilton is covered by the Wilton Fire Department.
Past and Present
The early years of the district were consumed largely by brush and chimney fires. The annual total of fire alarms in the early years of the company totaled in the neighborhood of thirty calls, presently Maple Avenue averages over fifty per month. The majority of the district back in the fifties was farm land, now the district has a very high percentage of commercial real estate including the Exit 15 corridor, I-87, a large amount of railroad, Route 9 and Route 9N.
In 1947, the an annual Greenfield Fire District budget was approximately $5000. As of 2010, the budget is around $1.3 Million.
And that's not the only thing that has changed over the past 56 years. The district began with only four trucks in its fleet - now it's fleet has sixteen.
The first fire stations were either old converted school houses or old barns that were given to the district. The individual fire department's themselves added on to their facility, building the additions themselves. For example, in the early sixties the Maple Avenue Fire Department a large meeting hall was built by the members of the company which would serve as a location for turkey and spagetti dinners which the company used to raise funds for new equipment.
The early years of the district are filled with stories of fighting fires without equipment. Back then members fought fires with their own clothes, without radios, pagers, and other, what is now perceived as common tools to combat fires. Often alarms in the early morning in sub-zero temperatures would cause the pumps to freeze and equipment to fail, and the firefighters would be left with nothing but ingenuity to fight fire. In an age of state-of-the-art $375,000 fire trucks, bunker pants, boots, helmets, air packs, and gloves, its hard to imagine fire fighting without these necessities.
In the late 1980's, the district began to plan for the replacement of these stations with new modernized facilities. Porter Corners Fire Department was the first to receive the first of these new stations in 1990. Middle Grove was then built in 1993 and Maple Avenue moved into their new station winter of 1997. Greenfield Center's new station was the latest to be built and went into service in 2000.
Statistics
The Greenfield Fire District is the largest fire district in Saratoga County and has the largest membership in Saratoga County. It also has the most fire apparatus in one fire district, which as of 2009 - was 20 trucks. The GFD now posts the annual call percentages and totals online here.
The Greenfield Fire District covers a district of 82.910 square miles with a population of over 10,000 people. The district itself is composed of two dominant sectors, a large urban sector and a large commercial area. One of the reasons's for the separation of call volumes between Maple Avenue and the remaining Greenfield Fire District is that the majority of the commercial area of the district is hearted in Maple Avenue's district - whereas Greenfield Center, Porters Corners, and Middle Grove districts are of a predominantly urban nature.
The Greenfield Fire District is surrounded by the City of Saratoga Springs, the Town of Milton, the Town of Corinth, and the Town of Wilton. Each of which presents their own needs for mutual aid, which continues to add to the growing responsibility of the Greenfield Fire District.